SCORES Analysis

NetSuite Strengths

In 2015 NetSuite maintained its growth in the Cloud-based ERP applications market with a 33% growth in subscription revenues, compared with 34% in 2013. Total revenue for the year rose to $741 million, a fifth-consecutive year of recurring revenue growth. The increased momentum added to an already sizable customer base.

At SuiteWorld 2015, the vendor’s annual user conference, NetSuite announced the signing of its biggest customer in terms of user base: American Express Global Business Travel. NetSuite also announced a strategic cloud partnership with its former rival in the ERP space Microsoft, including tighter integration with Office365 and Windows. NetSuite will also move off Amazon AWS as its preferred cloud infrastructure for testing and developing. The collaboration pairs NetSuite’s cloud ERP suite with Microsoft cloud technology in both the near and short term.

After adding 1,400 customers from its 2015 purchase of Bronto Software, NetSuite is on track to secure an installed base of 30,000+ organizations in 2015, in 160 countries. That is up from about 20,000 in 2013. In Q1 of 2015 alone, NetSuite added 350 customers, including big enterprises like HP for use of NetSuite’s Cloud ERP apps in 15 countries. The vendor also tallied 500 new customers in the fourth quarter of 2014, the largest number of new customers since NetSuite went public in 2007. The momentum suggests that the reach of NetSuite has gone beyond its core constituents in the professional services vertical, especially those involved in selling software and technology solutions.

The $200-million Bronto purchase, one of many in recent years, underscores its broad expansion in omnichannel commerce and email marketing. Bronto also offers easy integration into Magento, Omniture, Google, Demandware, MarketLive and web analytics and eCommerce vendors.

Another key pillar of its strategy lies in delivering single, integrated system covering ERP, financials, Human Capital Management, CRM, eCommerce, inventory and order management for companies of all sizes. Its multi-currency and multi-language support has enabled its customers to manage their far-flung operations without the need of installing expensive software and hardware.

In 2014, NetSuite featured the newest release of its offering targeting project-based services businesses. NetSuite SRP automates and streamlines the delivery of services to companies around the globe. The product had a strong year, with new business bookings up 40% during the year in the services vertical.

In Q4, NetSuite signed its largest deal ever with a services company. Another growing vertical is NetSuite’s AMP (advertising, media, publishing division), with customers including the Boston Globe, Thrillist and Gizmodo. In the eCommerce market, the vendor’s leadership in omnichannel commerce also rolled on, and it saw 25% more customers adding SuiteCommerce in Q1 of 2015 than it did in Q1 of 2014. The growing appeal of delivering such all-in-one solutions via the Cloud has resulted in worldwide adoptions of NetSuite products among thousands of new and existing customers.

NetSuite rolled out several additions to SuiteCommerce at SuiteWorld, including SuiteCommerce InStore, a full-featured point-of-sale system for instore and online commerce. Recurring revenues from net new customers have eclipsed those from existing customers by a ratio of at least 2.5 times to 1 over the past two years. That has been accomplished by rapid implementations for NetSuite, allowing the vendor to quickly recognize recurring revenues once their customers go live.

About 40% of NetSuite’s worldwide new business revenues are derived from its channel, and the percentage could even go higher given its channel bookings have been growing more than 40% over the past year.

NetSuite Cloud Platform (PaaS) & Infrastructure (IaaS) Details

Research Methodology

Data used in research reports are derived from publicly available documents, continuous surveys of applications vendors, customers, resellers, Independent Software Vendors, systems integrators and other verifiable sources.

Vendor shares and market forecast results are based on a combination of existing databases as well as demand side and supply side research conducted throughout the year with validation from vendors, customers, channel partners and documentations such as earnings releases and 10Q and 10K filings, vertical industry studies, regional and country-level statistics from public and private institutions(i.e. colleges, universities, government agencies and trade associations).